T:<medicine> question	Q:My Mom (<age> yrs old) has been suffering from fairly severe dementia for almost <time_period>. Before that she had been declining somewhat,  but it seems to have gotten pretty severe pretty quickly. Her <professional_practitioner> tried <medicine> a <time_period> ago and Mom had horrible diarrhea,  bad enough to land her in ER. We stopped the <medicine>,  but now the <professional_practitioner> wants to try it again. My question is -- what do we hope to accomplish with this medication? Will it lessen her confusion? Or is it intended to merely stop the progression of the disease? While she was on it a <time_period> ago,  we didn't notice any benefit,  although she only took it for <time_period>. Second question -- does the medication actually accomplish whatever it is we're trying to do? Anyone with experience out there?	A:The meds for Alzheimer patients are designed to either slow down the progression or lessen confusion/emotional/aggressive tendencies. <medicine> will not reverse the damage already done but it can help slow down the rate in which it's happening - perhaps even stabilize her. It takes a while to build up in the body so <time_period> isn't long enough to see if this would help her. However,  if she was having a bad reaction to it (diarrhea wise) then it might not be a good thing for her to be on.  Have you tried asking about other medications?
